


Gently

by AlyssAlenko



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Aliens, Chemistry, Comrades in Arms, Emergency Induction Port, Emotions, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Happily Ever After, Happy Ending, Love, Love Confessions, Love Letters, Major Character Injury, Quarians, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Soldiers, Stolen Moments, Teasing, True Love, Trust, caring boyfriend, linking suits, matchmaker Shepard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 14:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13977372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyssAlenko/pseuds/AlyssAlenko
Summary: I ship these two like burning and finding this request was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. Shepard plays matchmaker and before she knows it, Tali and Kal'Reegar, have quite the spark going, heading towards their own happy ending...





	Gently

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_wrote](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_wrote/gifts).



_ “And if the Admirals have a problem with it, they can go to Hell. I just watched the rest of my team die.” Tali growled. _

_ “Maybe not the whole rest of your team, Ma’am.” Kal limped into the building, Tali’s eyes behind her mask going wide. _

_ “Reegar! You made it!” Tali heaved a sigh of relief as she rushed to him, embracing him tightly. _

_ “Gently!” He half-chuckled, half-groaned, Tali backing off with a mumbled apology. “Your old captain’s as good as you said. Damn Colossus never stood a chance.” _

“Hey, Tali--you have a letter, Reegar sent it to me in hopes that I could pass it along...and I may have peeked; sounds like he carries quite the torch for you.” Taye grinned, handing Tali the datapad. “And maybe the feeling’s mutual? You were so happy when you found out he was alive after Haestrom.”

“Shep, I know you love to play matchmaker, and you do it well, but let this one go.”

“Only if you agree to consider it.”

Tali laughed, smacking Taye on the shoulder with the datapad, turning heel as she read through the letter. Shepard had been her best friend and confidant, the only person Tali trusted with her life--or so she’d thought, but then Kal’Reegar had been assigned to her team by the admiralty board. He still called her ma’am despite all they’d been through, but the undertones of the letter had her reminiscing. Reegar had always been soft spoken when they were alone together; sweet, gentle, and he never pushed her, letting her warm up to him on her own terms. Maybe Taye was right and there could be something there; it hadn’t been her imagination all those times she’d found him watching her.

And yet when it came down to it, she was scared; they’d been friends first and if this didn’t work out, they wouldn’t be able to go back...things would never be the same between them and she didn't want to ruin their friendship over misplaced feelings.

They’d been writing back and forth for the longest time since Haestrom, Pen Pals, Taye called it, and feelings had been bubbling to the surface since the whole thing started. She constantly found herself wandering through the ship, reading and re-reading his latest correspondence hunting for hidden meanings, as she figured out how to respond. He was the only person besides her Auntie Raan and Taye that she trusted implicitly, and there was absolutely no one Kal’Reegar respected more than Tali, though actually getting him to call her Tali was like trying to turn one piece of scrap metal into a ship. Once Taye had gotten in her head, Tali couldn’t stop thinking about linking suits with Kal...though she wasn’t even sure when she’d started referring to him as Kal instead of Reegar in her head.

And then he’d written to her about his suicide run because reaper ground forces had punched a hole in his suit, her heart was in her throat, as she pulled up her omnitool. He was low on antibiotics, even with the seals on his suit sectioning off the rupture. The little bosh’tet had gotten it in his head to ram the Reaper blockade. She couldn't let him throw his life away, not when Taye could pick him up...they had plenty of antibiotics on the Normandy. The command to hack his heads-up display pinged as it went through, Tali running through the ship finding Taye leaning over the galaxy map. Tali and Kal needed to talk, in person and in private, for what she needed to say, but she didn't have the time.

Taye cocked her head to the side as Kal’Reegar’s visage appeared on Tali’s HUD.

“Tali?”

It was the first time she’d heard him call her by her name, and that made everything easier.

“Keelah Kal, please don't be a hero! I love you and I need you to come back to me!”

“I don't know how much longer I’ll last…”

“Kal please, we’re on our way.” She shot Taye a pleading look, her best friend just nodding. “Don’t throw your life away!”

There was a pause. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Joker, I need you to put those years of flight school to the test...I just put a set of coordinates into the galaxy map, and we need to be there yesterday.” Taye told him. “And Karin, we have injured quarians incoming, I need you prepared.”

“Aye, Aye, Shepard.” Joker and Chakwas said in unison.

Tali felt her knees buckle underneath her, collapsing against Taye, who guided her to the mess hall, filling a glass with water, and putting a straw in it and sliding it to Tali as she sat beside her, draping an arm around her shoulders. They sat in companionable silence, waiting as Tali brought the emergency induction port up to her mask. It felt like a lifetime passed before someone limped around the corner, Tali turning her head at the hint of movement to her right, multiple  quarians making their way to the medbay. But a familiar suit of red armor with a blue visor wasn’t among them, and Taye didn’t need to be a quarian to read the disappointment behind Tali’s mask, her shoulders slumping in defeat, her head falling onto the table top. Taye laughed and excused herself, as someone cleared their throat off to the left of the mess, Tali’s chair grating across the floor as she launched herself into Kal’s arms, happy sobs racking her slender frame as his arms closed around her, stroking her back.

“Gently.” Kal chuckled as Tali squeezed him.

It was only a matter of time before they linked suit environments, but he had to get his antibiotics first...


End file.
